Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, while running for leadership of the ruling party in late 1982, sought to arrange an early visit to the United States if he became prime minister, according to a Japanese diplomatic document declassified Thursday.
Nakasone conveyed the wish for a U.S. visit as early as in January 1983 to Gaston Sigur, head of Asian affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, on Nov. 18, 1982, during Sigur's visit to Japan. At the time, Nakasone was in the middle of a preliminary race for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's presidential election.
Nakasone was elected LDP head and thus prime minister later in the month and formed his Cabinet on Nov. 27, 1982. Soon after, the U.S. administration of President Ronald Reagan decided to hold a Japan-U.S. summit in Washington on Jan. 18, 1983.